{"id":47849,"date":"2018-04-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-09T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/ask-if-you-can-bring-a-friend\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T07:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T07:31:33","slug":"ask-if-you-can-bring-a-friend","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/ask-if-you-can-bring-a-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask If You Can Bring A Friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This column was co-authored by Benjamin Ray and Pete Crigler…. but since our site architecture doesn’t currently allow for co-authored pieces, and Ben took the lead on this one, all Pete gets in the way of credit is this little footnote up front… sorry, dude.]<\/i><\/p>\n

With the release of their second self-titled album in 2018, STP roared back to life with a new singer and something to say. It was the continuation of a band who came to prominence in the early 1990s, one that rose up from the hard rock ranks of southern California but was lumped in with the \u201cgrunge\u201d movement by myopic critics. The band became famous for their mix of psychedelic, swirling hard rock and pop smarts, though the antics and addictions of singer Scott Weiland soon overshadowed the music, and the band called it quits in 2003. Two aborted comeback attempts happened between then and the new album, which finds Jeff Gutt now fronting the group. This ranking will count down the band\u2019s seven studio albums and one EP from least to most essential.<\/p>\n

\"stonetemple_highrise_150\"<\/a> 8. High Rise (EP) (2013)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

The third attempt to record with someone other than Scott Weiland (Talk Show, Army of Anyone) also is the first under the STP name and was a way to test the waters with new singer Chester Bennington, on temporary hiatus from Linkin Park. The pairing was a good fit for a while, but the music never made it past some live shows and this EP and Bennington returned to Linkin Park until his untimely death a few years later. The EP remains an interesting side project for all musicians involved but, aside from \u201cBlack Heart\u201d and \u201cOut of Time,\u201d doesn\u2019t mine enough new territory to make it compelling listening.<\/p>\n

7. Shangri-La Dee Da (2001)\"stonetemple_shangri\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/i><\/b>The final original album from the band before Weiland\u2019s (first) departure to join Velvet Revolver is also the weakest. The songs ranged from straight pop (\u201cDays Of The Week,\u201d which caused a near-revolt among fans upon its release) to a bevy of acoustic-guitar numbers to lesser entries in the psych-hard rock genre mined far more successfully on No. 4<\/i>. Overall, the songwriting is just less interesting or memorable, especially on the second half of the disc; certainly, \u201cBi-Polar Bear,\u201d \u201cTransmissions From \u00a0A Lonely Room,\u201d \u201cRegeneration\u201d and \u201cLong Way Home\u201d have to be among the band\u2019s dullest songs. A new father at the time, Weiland manages to get in some truly lovely ballads with \u201cA Song For Sleeping\u201d and \u201cHello It\u2019s Late,\u201d while the snarling \u201cHollywood Bitch\u201d and the Courtney Love kiss-off \u201cToo Cool Queenie\u201d suggest the band still had some gas. But it\u2019s not enough to recommend the record; basically the sound of a band on autopilot, cranking out songs because they had to.<\/p>\n

\"stonetemplepilots_st2018_150\"<\/a> 6. Stone Temple Pilots (2018)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Losing two singers would be enough to sink most bands, but the DeLeo brothers (and Eric Kretz) had been held captive by singer drama for far too long and opted to press on with a new singer. Jeff Gutt sounds a bit like Weiland but never imitates him, which allows the music to come forward. There are no great leaps forward from anything the band had done since No. 4<\/i> 19 years prior, but as a consolidation of modern strengths, STP <\/i>is a fine rock record.<\/p>\n

5. Stone Temple Pilots (2010)\"stonetemplepilots_st_150\"<\/a> <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Weiland\u2019s return to the band after 7 years is triumphant, eschewing the meanderings of Shangri-La Dee Da <\/i>for a set of straight-ahead hard rock-pop tunes with only a hint of the abject weirdness of days gone by. The band sounds as inspired by its own catalog as it does by Aerosmith and what Weiland had been doing with Velvet Revolver. \u201cHuckleberry Crumble\u201d and \u201cBetween the Lines\u201d bring the swagger, \u201cDare If You Dare\u201d and \u201cHazy Daze\u201d bring the swirling, all-encompassing psychedelic sound back around, \u201cCinnamon\u201d brings an unabashed pop-rock sound that needs no apology and \u201cFirst Kiss On Mars\u201d is one of the band\u2019s coolest slow songs and the last gasp of Weiland\u2019s creativity . If it runs out of steam at the end, STP <\/i>shows this quartet could still make magic when Weiland was up for it.<\/p>\n

\"stonetemple_tinymusic\"<\/a> 4. Tiny Music\u2026Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop (1996)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

And then things got weird. The record that first got me (Pete) hooked onto this band was definitely a different one. Moving away from the hard rock that had defined the first two albums, the band here got creative and ambitious, adding dimension to their sound with layers and a new approach to songwriting. Weiland\u2019s vocals even sounded more gravelly which only added to the weirdness. The pop tendencies grew a bit, and the hard rock was still there (\u201cTumble In The Rough,\u201d \u201cPop\u2019s Love Suicide,\u201d (a personal fave), \u201cTripping On A Hole In A Paper Heart\u201d), but on the expansive \u201cAdhesive,\u201d the lovely, understated \u201cAnd So I Know,\u201d the underrated psych-pop tune \u201cLady Picture Show\u201d and the tuneful instrumental \u201cDaisy,\u201d the band showed it was capable of much more than critics gave them credit for. <\/p>\n

3. No. 4 (1999)\"stonetemple_4\"<\/a> <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

After Tiny Music <\/i>and Weiland\u2019s weirdo solo album, the band got back to its strengths with No. 4<\/i>, a lean, muscular hard rock effort with a brace of killer songs. \u201cDown\u201d and \u201cHeaven and Hot Rods\u201d are a brutal one-two opening punch, \u201cSour Girl\u201d was one of the last great songs of the \u201890s with its trippy feel, \u201cNo Way Out\u201d and \u201cGlide\u201d are very good album tracks and \u201cAtlanta\u201d was an acoustic, string-laden tune with hints of the Doors unlike anything else in the band\u2019s discography. A couple weak tracks keep this from ascending higher, but this was the last truly great album the band made.<\/p>\n

\"stonetemple_purple\"<\/a> 2. Purple (1994)<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

One of the great alt-rock albums in a year chock-full of them, Purple <\/i>not only built on the greatness of Core <\/i>but expanded on it by creating an immersive sonic world. A swirling haze seems to envelop all of the tracks, a murderer\u2019s row of classic songs like \u201cVasoline,\u201d the pop-friendly \u201cInterstate Love Song\u201d and the expansive, epic \u201cBig Empty.\u201d Even the album tracks are among the band\u2019s strongest songs, like \u201cMeatplow,\u201d the frantic \u201cUnglued,\u201d the lovely \u201cStill Remains,\u201d the full on punch of \u201cLounge Fly\u201d and the all-acoustic \u201cPretty Penny,\u201d which got some airplay on college rock stations simply because it was different from the normal hard-rock swirl. One of the more exceptional sophomore albums of the alternative rock boom.<\/p>\n

1. Core (1992)\"stonetemple_core\"<\/a> <\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Without question the band\u2019s finest hour, right out of the gate. Although the success of hard rock (\u201cgrunge\u201d) bands like Pearl Jam in 1991 may have given Core <\/i>more exposure than it normally would have received, it nevertheless stands on its own as a singular hard rock effort that has aged better than many of its peers. Scott Weiland had yet to develop the off-kilter lyrics and stage persona that would come to the fore later, and the band was not yet lost in the psychedelic and pop aspects of its sound, so on track after track Core <\/i>delivers blistering alt-rock. The highlights are numerous \u2013 \u201cSex Type Thing,\u201d the crushing \u201cDead & Bloated,\u201d \u201cWicked Garden,\u201d \u201cCrackerman,\u201d \u201cNaked Sunday\u201d and the acoustic \u201cCreep\u201d are atop any fan\u2019s Top 10 list \u2013 while the majestic, Grammy-winning \u201cPlush\u201d showed a maturity in sound and approach that the band rarely equaled going forward. If a couple of the tracks are lesser entries (\u201cSin,\u201d \u201cWhere the River Goes,\u201d \u201cPiece of Pie\u201d), they still fit the overall feel and flow of this record. Once you start listening, it\u2019s hard to stop; simply a near masterpiece of a debut record.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stone Temple Pilots Albums Ranked Worst To Best<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":48947,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[],"feature_type":[32],"class_list":["post-47849","feature","type-feature","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","feature_type-feature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47849\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47849"},{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}